Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Best-known for initiating the student sit-in movement that transformed southern U.S. culture and reshaped the history of African Americans nationwide, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was at the forefront of the student wing of the Civil Rights Movement and, later, the Black Power Movement. This entry records that history.

On February 1, 1960, four African American college students sat down at the counter of the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth's lunch counter and refused to move until they were served. For hours, the students were tormented by Whites who were shocked at the blatant violation of racial customs. Eventually, the store closed rather than serve the Black students. The next day they returned, joined by more students, and the following day, by dozens more, all from local historically Black colleges. The students went to jail rather than continue to be denied equal service. Throughout the next few months, hundreds of African Americans, and some White sympathizers, engaged in dozens of sit-ins in fifty-four cities across the country. Willing to be jailed for their efforts, these and the thousands of other students who later joined SNCC called attention to segregation through nonviolent tactics directed at local White establishments.

Students such as Marion Barry, Diane Nash, John Lewis, and James Bevel emerged early in the movement at the first conference led by long-time community activist Ella Baker, who was then with the Southern Christian Leadership Coalition (SCLC). Leadership remained in the hands of local students throughout the organization's history. Barry was the first leader, followed by Lewis from 1960 through 1966, when Stokely Carmichael rose to power. Under Lewis, SNCC sought equal access to public facilities, increased voter registration, and increased education within southern Black communities. With Carmichael came a significant shift in ideology within the ranks of SNCC membership. Although initially an organization devoted to nonviolent tactics to promote social equality and draw attention to their struggle, SNCC's ideology shifted toward revolution to change the underlying structure of inequality in U.S. society.

SNCC consistently sought autonomy from the more religiously inspired SCLC, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Although some SNCC members drew on radical aspects of Christianity and most members drew particular inspiration from the Reverends James Lawson and C. T. Vivian, others demurred, even refusing to join in the group prayer sessions while held in local jails. SNCC members often came to resent the attention paid to King when much of the on-the-ground planning and action involved local students, rather than a national figure.

SNCC consistently used the national media to highlight the continued existence of segregation in the United States. In 1961, SNCC joined with the Congress of Racial Equality, SCLC, and White student allies for Freedom Rider through the South to highlight segregation in public transportation, which persisted despite a federal law ruling this unconstitutional. Beaten, fire-bombed, and arrested, the Freedom Riders ended their journey having brought national attention to White racist violence.

Expanding their program to a nationwide effort, SNCC created Freedom Summer in 1964 to register voters and call national attention to southern Black voter disenfranchisement and promote community education in cities and towns throughout the South. [Page 1282]Recruiting White college students and young professionals from the North again drew national media attention to SNCC's efforts. The tragic death of an African American SNCC member, James Cheney, and two White northern students, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, heightened the nation's consciousness of the violence perpetrated against young Black and White activists promoting equality. In addition to registering thousands of new Black voters, SNCC established Freedom Schools and community centers to provide education in citizenship and African American history and culture.

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